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Violence against women—what next?
Someone said nothing happened until there was a reporter. Publicity hungry cabinet ministers and other politicians are known to delay, postpone or even cancel scheduled press conferences because the men and women from the press are not around.
This underscores the importance of the media, also known as the fourth estate, in society. They show the role the media plays in educating, informing and entertaining society and also as a medium for change—stimulating debate on topical issues with a view to changing people’s mind-set and setting them on for action.
But the statement “nothing happened until there was a reporter” also means that a huge event could go unnoticed if it is not reported by the media.
What is also true about the media is that it cannot be everywhere to record history as it unfolds. In Malawi, for instance, due to resource constraints the media cannot get to all parts of the country and thoroughly investigate issues. As a window into those areas, the media relies on other institutions who give it tips.
That there has been an unprecedented media blitz on gender-related violence recently is a fact for which law enforcing agents ought to get credit. In my view, the many macabre murders, gruesome maiming of women and children, estranged husbands chopping off wives’ arms and mutilating their private parts, children getting killed alongside their mothers by ‘sick’ men over petty issues, are not new in our society.
I do not think there has been an increase in crime against women and children nor that some husbands have suddenly hardened their attitude towards their wives to the point that they have resolved to settling family disputes by maiming and killing their spouses.
The only thing that has changed is the pattern and frequency of reporting them. This change has come as a result of organisational changes in the Malawi Police Service. Whether the Police as an institution is responding to changes from within it or it is simply toeing the decentralisation process, it is a fact that the organisation has devolved some of the powers previously held by the Headquarters staff to district level. For example, each district now has its own public relations officer who has powers to relay information about what the Police are doing at district level to the media. This is a very positive development for which they ought to be applauded.
The result of this move is that through these PROs, journalists now have a direct window into all the country’s 28 districts. On their part, the district police spokespersons are also keen to get the country know about what their respective stations are doing. This is a great improvement over the previous system which left most crime and other activities that the Police are involved in unreported. It was ridiculous under the previous arrangement to expect the media to get information from the Police spokesman based at Area 30 in Lilongwe on an issue that has just occurred in Mwanza.
One can only hope that the country as a whole will benefit from the new arrangement, and that the increase in reported cases will constantly remind us that there is rampant crime in our society. Hopefully, this will spur the nation, the law enforcers themselves, the village of NGOs dealing in human rights and everyone to be pro-active on the matter and be better prepared to deal with the situation.
That is why I fully support the Blantyre Chief Resident Magistrate’s Court for meting out a 14-year jail term on the 60-year old man who defiled a seven-year old girl only last week. I also want to add my voice (even if it may just be noise) to the cry for speedy investigations into and hearing of cases involving violence against women and children.––Feedback: stevenhlane@yahoo.co.uk
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